Fokker F.I 103/17 - Werner Voss 1917 - FIN!

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Kev!

 

On to some progress. It seems the little Dreidecker is just what the Dr. ordered as far as MoJo goes. 

 

This has been a very enjoyable build to date. Much progress to share........

[LSP_K2]

2 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

Thanks Kev!

 

On to some progress. It seems the little Dreidecker is just what the Dr. ordered as far as MoJo goes. 

 

This has been a very enjoyable build to date. Much progress to share........

 

Is that a pun?

[Out2gtcha]

Im a poet and didnt know it!

 

Things are starting to progress fast, and so far this kit has been nothing but a joy. The only issues so far, are the ones reported, a broken middle wing upper cockpit side piece, and warped wings. Both problems have now been dispatched, all in about 20 or 30 min.

 

I must be honest when I say, I had my doubts looking at the kit initially in pictures, and reading about it on the internet, but after building and fitting a lot of it, I can say with certainty, this kit smacks of WnWs all over its engineering and design.  More on that later in this post...........

 

Lets get on with the circus/show!

 

The little triplane fits together generally very well. Cockpit rigging underway:

 

 

 

 

 

Cockpit sidewalls complete, and have had a flat coat applied to the fabric and wood areas:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cockpit tub is painted, assembled and rigged. The formation of the cockpit tub, how it fits into the fuselage (near flawlessly) and how easy and compartmentalized the build is, is very reminiscent of the WnW Fokker D.VII I had previously built.  As stated, it fits into the fuselage almost perfectly and just like WnW kits, if you get any paint on mating surfaces, scrape it off, or things wont fit. The Aviatic decals worked well too, but are very delicate.

 

Overall, not my best work ever, but its still fun at this point, and Im not taking this one too seriously. And UHHHHGG!! The macro lens is NOT anyone's friend. If you think you did some cool work, just put it under a macro lens and they will get over themselves pretty quickly. Not too bad though:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The OOB seat belts are not very accurate (the buckle and closer apparatus is all wrong), but do look the part, and conform very well after annealing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in a min with some more pics............

 

[monthebiff]

Looking good Brian, are those internal Aviattic decals on clear or white decal paper out of interest?

 

Your build has spurred me on to buy a few bits of am for mine and looking forward to starting it. Following your build with great interest!

 

Regards. Andy 

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Andy. Its the Aviatic recommended way, gloss white down, and decals applied in warm water and left to sit overnight. Not convinced they needed it but did use some Solvaset on them too, to help them conform. 

After the cockpit tub was finished, I decided to do some further fitting. Here is the tell tale WnW fit for me..........

 

The finished cockpit tub in situ with fuselage. Bit of advice on the Aviatic decals: Dont use mineral spirits on them! I believe it wrecks the ink printing on the decals. Everything still looks fine, but didnt realize that and it ruined the seat a bit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every single thing here is (literally) just setting together dry fit with the exception of the fuselage halves which have tape on them. This thing in 32nd is SO tiny!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in a min with the last round of fitting! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

I ended up gluing the fuselage together, and did some more trial fitting of the lower front plate after completing the gluing of the fuse halves.

The fit here is exceptional in all respects. The firewall, fuselage halves and cockpit all fit together amazingly well.

 

Here I have the two fuse halves glued together, but nothing else. The firewall, cowl and forward under fuselage plate all dry fit, and fit together about as well as anyone could ever ask for. VERY reminiscent of WnW here:

 

Fuselage and firewall:

 

 

 

 

 

Fuselage and firewall and cowl. The fit between these elements is really top notch;

 

 

 

Fuselage, firewall, cowl and front under plate:

 

 

 

 

 

Fuselage, firewall, cowl, front under plate with lower wing, all dry fit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All for now lads, its off to snow throw the last round of 8" of snow (to add to the 15+" we already had on the ground from previous storms)

 

Cheers

[LSP_K2]

For whatever it's worth, the folks at WNW (specifically Richard Alexander), have stated that there is evidence that the interior side wedge shaped plywood, was actually painted in a red primer/paint of some sort. This concept will be covered in either of the two new volumes by Ray at Albatros, when those volumes are released.

[John1]

On 2/18/2021 at 9:31 AM, Uncarina said:

Another nice reason to anneal is to make the mg cooling jackets more pliable when you roll them into a cylinder. Note the duration of heat exposure needed can vary considerably, depending on the type and thickness of metal. I have “fond” memories of annealing Tamiya photoetch, which can be thick as a dinner plate!

 

Cheers,  Tom

A word of caution - I tried to do this on the WNW Albi cooling jackets and I burned a hole right through them.  

[Jeff T]

3 hours ago, John1 said:

A word of caution - I tried to do this on the WNW Albi cooling jackets and I burned a hole right through them.  

Same here John!...glad I wasn't the only one..

 

Beautiful work Brian!...this is really kicking on..

 

Cheer's,

Jeff.

Edited February 22, 2021 by JT68

[MikeMaben]

[Troy Molitor]

Nice work going on here Brian.  

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks gents!

 

As to burning through the PE, I myself was worried about that same thing. I did exactly that in the past using my mini torch. This time around for the PE buckles I used a normal cigarette lighter, and seemed to work good with the slightly thicker Meng PE. Im hoping the same will be true for the MG jackets.

 

On to some progress then..........

[Out2gtcha]

I broke out the landing gear wing that houses the axle and got that glued up. The fit here too was MOST excellent, but of course having giant hams for fists doesnt help.

Snapped off the port axle with ease:

 

 

 

 

 

So far, one of the very few weak spots in the kit Ive found other than the already known wing warp and broken cockpit piece. Fortunately, the axle issue was easily solved by cutting off the other axle, then flush cutting and sanding of both sides, then used a center punch to center up a hole on each side and drill it out with an appropriately sized drill bit.

 

Also of note, this is the wider landing gear wing. There is a narrower one including with the kit that is meant for Richthofen's kite only.  Next I inserted a section of solid brass rod:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After measuring cutting and sanding flush the rod to the correct length, I used a fine sanding stick to round off the outer edges, then glued the rod in with some thin CA

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end result is not too bad with things just dry fit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for a fairly major step (or as major as a step can be for an itty bitty thing like the DR.1). After a lot of dry fitting, the middle wing was glued into position permanently. 

The fit was once again exceptional in most all aspects, even fitting the broken starboard side cockpit part back on.

Just a bit of finish sanding will bring things all together before painting, which in this case will eventually be MRP bleached linen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then cut all 4 inter-wing struts off the spues and cleaned them all up. They fit into each wing in a specific keyed manor, so there is no getting them in the wrong place either. 

I dry fit them on, along with the top wing to see how things would look with the corrected warp taken out of things. The little guy looks pretty good!

 

Things came a LOOOOOOONG way in under 30 years:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All for now lads, Im hoping to finish up the ancillary parts to getting the main airframe ready for paint. In typical WWI fashion, one usually has to paint and/or decal these things in separate sub-assemblies. 

Normally I do NOT like to work like that, but with WWI aircraft being biplanes that usually need a LOT of rigging (DR.1/F.1 being an exception) or in this case, having a LOT of major decals to apply, painting the model while generally disassembled is really the only way to do it. 

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

 

[kensar]

Your project is really coming along well, Brian.  I have one of these in the stash to do soon.

Do the landing gear have a good, positive mounting point where the forward strut arms attach to the wing/fuse location?

 

[Out2gtcha]

16 minutes ago, kensar said:

Your project is really coming along well, Brian.  I have one of these in the stash to do soon.

Do the landing gear have a good, positive mounting point where the forward strut arms attach to the wing/fuse location?

 

 

Thanks!

 

I havnt quite got to the landing gear struts themselves yet, but yes, there is a very nice notch at each end (very WnW like if you have ever built one of their D VIIs) for the struts to glue into. No but joints there!

 

This is one of the steps Ill likely need to tackle very soon as Id like to paint the struts at the same time I'm going to paint the center fuselage section, both needing to be a dark green to match the Aviatic decals.